Anthony Esolen makes the case in First Things that Shakespeare was a profoundly Christian playwrite. He writes: “There is an abundance of evidence to show that Shakespeare was a profoundly Christian playwright—and far more thoroughly concerned with the theology of grace, repentance, and redemption than any of his contemporaries. Here I should like to note one characteristic of his view of the world that seems to spring from his Christian faith—for it certainly does not spring from any recrudescence of paganism in the Renaissance, nor from the worldly laxity that sets in with the fading of western man’s assurance of Christian dogma and morals. For Shakespeare, chastity is as near…

David Mills has a few things to say about Lady Gaga and spirituality at First Things. In particular, he deconstructs the trend toward “spirituality” as an alternative to “religion.” He writes, ‘It’s a great and self-serving mess, this claim to be “spiritual but not religious,” which we hear from almost anyone who talks about religion in public… So we find Lady Gaga, the pornographic songstress, telling a reporter for The Times that she has a new spirituality just before taking her out for a night at a Berlin sex club. Asked by the reporter, “You were raised a Catholic — so when you say ‘God,’ do you mean the Catholic…

Mary Kassian has an exhortation to young women who are being influenced by feminism and its pornification of women in our culture. She uses the recent Miss USA contest as a case in point. She writes: ‘It’s the ultimate irony that the foundational beliefs of feminism have contributed to the increased sexual objectification and pornographication of women.